The journey may not always be smooth, the path may not always be clear, but in every moment there is a memory waiting to be made. What we make of these moments is up to us.

Tuesday, February 15, 2011

Crazy little thing called.....

Vacation. (You thought I was going to say love, huh? See I am just full of surprises!)

February is a BUSY month for us each year. We have my grandpa's birthday on the 4th (He turned 85 this year), Beth's Birthday on the 9th, Matty's birthday on the 11th ,Valentines Day on the 14th, a heap of birthdays on the 25th (Mine, Sallie, Becca, and Jon), and finally my boss's birthday on the 28th. Whew. Busy Month. So, in an effort to cut down on costs and to avoid filling up every weekend, a few of us try and consolodate our birthday festivities into one event.

This year Matt's bday happened to coincide with a previously planned trip to Charleston. I had purchased tickets to see Gabriel Iglesias (amazingly funny comedian--GOOGLE him) for Drew, Tim, Jon, and myself for Christmas. Since the show was set for Sunday, February 13th, we decided that we would make a weekend of it. Nonny and PopPop were happy to spend the weekend taking care of little man and our pups.

So, Saturday morning we (Drew, me, Tim, and Jon) piled into the Tahoe and sit the road for Charleston. We made great time and checked into the hotel by lunch. Matt and Kara were already in Charleston b/c Matt had a doc appt there on Friday. So, we called them up and a few minutes later they are in our room. After much discussion, we headed to the mall for lunch. (Whoever invented the idea of a food court is GENIUS...one stop with 5 or more options to feed everyone in the group=LIFESAVER!) After lunch, we took off to outlet malls. I behaved (by avoiding Carters and OshKosh). Only bought one thing actually. I got an awesome shirt for myself at Eddie Bauer 80% off :) Score. Dinner that night was at Jestine's Kitchen. It was supposed to be at Fonduely Yours, but upon arriving we realized it was a biker bar that served fondue over oldschool flame burners. No bueno. So, Jestine's was up. It was good. The banana pudding was amazing! The off to bed.

Sunday morning we slept in (hahaha. I was up at 630, showered, dressed, and on cup of coffee number 2 when I woke Drew up at 830). We checked out and headed back downtown. Matt and Kara were waiting for us at TOAST. We enjoyed a yummy breakfast (next time I will take advantage of the $10 bottomless mimosas!) before heading the the market. We wandered around for a while. My hubs bought me a wonderful Trinity necklace for Valentine's Day! LOVE IT! Mid afternoon we headed back over by the outlets. They were right near the Performing Arts Center where our show was going to be that night. We stopped at Jim N Nicks for lunch. We love that place. If you are ever near one, check it out. Get the biscuts and ask for honey butter :) Yums. The place was packed so it took a long time. After visiting a bit longer, we parted ways with Matty and Kara and headed over to our show.

We got front row parking and waited for the doors to open. Our seats were amazing. Front row of regular seating. There were 3 rows of folding chairs in front of us for VIP, but they were pretty empty. The show was awesome! There were 4 openers, 3 of which were awesome. Fluffy came out and did a 2 hour set! We scooted home from Charleston and made it home by 1130pm.

Valentine's Day was spent as a family (mostly). Drew and I had both taken the day off since we weren't sure when we would get home on Sunday night. We took Ian to Suzy for a bit in the morning so we could get some yardsale stuff together at the storage shed. We scooped him up just after nap time, had lunch with PopPop, and then headed to the Zoo. I got to spend the day with the two guys I love most in the world. Which is all that mattered to me.